[Alice]

Does anyone grow Pistacia vera for pistachio nuts? I know that both male and female plants are needed. I have also heard it has a bit of a reputation for being difficult.

[Alisdair]

People in the village below us in the southern Peloponnese (Greece) have fruiting trees. They don't seem to carry a good crop every year, though; the trees, like some other fruit trees, tend to fruit on a two-year cycle, but it may be that here it's sometimes too mild in winter - ideally, the trees need two or three months with the temperature down around 5 deg C, to blossom well when things warm up. This is right on the coast, virtually sea level. They do seem to prune the trees very carefully.
Pistachios from the Greek island of Aegina, which does have cooler winters, are justly famous. I doubt if conditions there are vastly different from your own, though winter temperature may be the critical factor for you.
They can start fruiting when they are about ten years old

[Alice]

Thanks for the information, Alisdair. I have spotted a field of them not very far away (sea level), so the conditions must be right otherwise it would not be worthwhile growing them on such a scale. But I don't know how much pampering they get.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

I’ve had (already existing) pistachio trees in both my Attica gardens and never eaten a nut - they are always riddled with worm. It common knowledge here that pistachio trees only produce with a regime of spraying, which I’m not prepared to do. The bugs that go for the almonds are generous enough to leave a few for us but the pistachio bugs are voracious. I have a friend close by who's a producer, though, if you want to know the regime. His mother-in-law's secret recipe for roasting however, is, well, a secret.

[Alice]

It would be useful to know the spraying regime, Fleur, even though I can not have the secret roasting recipe! Thanks.